


Kindness of Strangers

by The_Clamp



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band)
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Alternate Universe, Awkward Park Junhee | Jun, Fluff, Heart Warmer, M/M, They're both soft, This will make you smile, strangers meeting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21746101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Clamp/pseuds/The_Clamp
Summary: Junhee’s morning routine is changed forever by a new stranger at the train station on his daily commute. When the stranger seems upset, he tries to cheer him up. Turns out, maybe he’s the one who’s in need of cheering up.Something heart warming for the holidays!
Relationships: Lee Donghun/Park Junhee | Jun
Comments: 28
Kudos: 175





	Kindness of Strangers

**Author's Note:**

> It's about time I wrote something pure!

Junhee didn’t hate his job. Not at all. He liked it, actually. What he did hate, though, was having to take the first train of the morning to get there. It was somewhat self inflicted, so he probably shouldn’t complain. He volunteered himself to be the one to come in early to open up to give his colleague the chance to drop her kid off at school. 

He had a routine of grabbing a coffee from the 24hr McDonald’s opposite the station before he headed down to the platform. He was always the only person on there and usually the train was pretty empty, too. Usually, if he got on the first carriage it would be empty. 

Sometimes he liked it that way because sometimes he felt kinda awkward and anxious around people. Sometimes he hated it, though. Sometimes it really didn’t help the loneliness he experienced living away from his family. It didn’t help that he didn’t really have any friends, either. He didn’t have time for friends, or the social skills required. 

He found winter a difficult time of year, the whimsy of the festive season only making him feel more isolated.

Today was different from the usual, though. Today, he stepped out onto the platform and spotted a young man sat on the short row of four seats. Just where Junhee liked to sit. But he wasn’t about to embark on the awkwardness of sitting near a stranger. So, he stood a reasonable distance away and waited for his train. 

He figured this was a mere blip in his daily routine. 

He was wrong. 

It became a daily occurrence. 

The man was now there every day. Except for Tuesdays, he noticed the guy was never there on Tuesdays. 

The stranger was definitely around Junhee’s age. His cheeks were always red from the cold, he had wisps of soft brown hair poking out from under his hat and he had these pink pouty lips. On the occasion Junhee tried to get a curious look at his face, the guy caught him in the act. He looked up and gave him a little smile before looking back down at his phone. He had the softest eyes Junhee had ever seen in his life. The guy looked like a puppy. 

Junhee had shot back what was probably the single most awkward smile in the world. All teeth and eyes wide in embarrassment of being caught looking. He probably looked like a crazy person. Great. He retreated to the other end of the platform in humiliation. 

He spent the day replaying it in his mind and relaying to his coworker how this cute guy caught him staring and had politely smiled, only for Junhee to awkwardly grin at him like a psychopath. Stranger danger, much?

She just laughed at him. 

The next day, the guy wasn’t there. Holy shit, had Junhee actually freaked him out that much? Shit. 

He sat himself on the row of chairs. No sooner had he taken a sip of his coffee, the guy appeared on the platform and sat himself down, leaving one empty chair between them. 

Junhee clutched his coffee, sitting up ridgedly. He made sure to keep his eyes fixed straight ahead this time. He could have sworn he heard the stranger huff out a breathy little laugh.

……

It took another week before Junhee had the guts to glance at the stranger again.

Winter had well and truly set in by now. The wind was harsh and biting and he felt half frozen just from the walk to the station. He was pacing up and down the platform to try and warm up, having arrived before the stranger with the nice eyes again. 

When said stranger appeared, he looked upset. Boldly, Junhee let himself look for long enough to see tears slipping down the man’s face. He looked so sad. What could have happened? He had to fight his natural instinct to offer comfort. 

But the following day, when the stranger appeared to be crying again, he couldn’t take it. He walked over to him, determined to actually talk to the guy. Just as he was about to open his mouth, the other young man looked up from his phone with teary his eyes looking straight at him. 

Junhee froze in place. 

The stranger dabbed at his eyes with his sleeve, blinking up at Junhee. He probably wondered why the hell Junhee was standing there in front of him like a freak. 

“Sorry.” Junhee chickened out, anxiety winning over as he darted away to the other end of the platform. Yeah, a restraining order was gonna be coming his way for sure.

……

He couldn’t stop thinking about the guy, though. About why he might be crying every morning lately. He felt like crying a lot of the time, too. He could relate. Junhee wanted to reach out and show him some human kindness but he was terrified of making a total ass of himself or scaring the poor guy. 

But while he stood in line at the McDonalds, he had some sort of epiphany. The guy probably already thought he was some sort of escaped lunatic so what did he have to lose? Sound logic, in Junhee’s opinion.

“Medium skinny latte?” The girl at the counter was already ringing up his order. He’d ordered the same thing every Monday to Saturday for the last three years, after all. 

“Um yes. Can I get two this time?”

She almost looked surprised. “Two skinny lattes coming up.” 

He paid and waited for the coffees. Knowing his luck, the guy could have had some deadly allergy to coffee. 

“023?” The girl at the counter called. 

He grabbed the coffees, thanking her quickly before heading to the station. He had to be extra careful not to slip on any ice, it was still dark out which didn’t help matters. 

When he managed to arrive incident-free, he saw the stranger sitting there, dabbing his eyes as he looked down at his phone. Junhee took a deep breath before heading over. 

“I-I’m sorry if I’m creepy. I don’t even know if you like coffee.” He held out the coffee as the young man looked up at him, eyes shining with tears. Junhee’s heart did something weird. “I promise it isn’t full of Rohypnol or something. Honest. You just looked upset and I wanted to see if I could cheer you up because you were crying.” He rushed out before the guy could tell him to fuck off or something. He closed his eyes tightly, cursing himself for being such a weirdo. What the fuck had he been thinking?

He was about to apologise and run away to hide under a rock when he felt ice cold hands brush his own as they took the coffee from him. 

“Thank you.” Came the guy’s voice. 

Junhee looked up and the sad pout was now a smile.

“I do like coffee but don’t worry, I’m not sad. My eyes just water a lot when it’s cold and windy like this.” He sipped the coffee. “This was really nice of you, though. At the very least you’ve saved me from losing my hands to frostbite. I kinda need them for work.”

“What kind of job do you have that you need your hands for?” As soon as the words left his mouth, Junhee knew it was a stupid thing to say. 

The guy laughed. What a nice laugh he had, though. “I can’t think of many jobs that don’t require you to use your hands in some way.” He motioned for Junhee to sit with him. “I work in a bakery, though.”

Junhee sat down, feeling the embarrassment burning in his face. “Oh that’s really cool. I’m a tailor in like this tiny shop.” He looked down at his own coffee cup. 

“Oh? That’s pretty awesome. I’m Donghun, by the way. It’s nice to finally talk to you.”

“I’m Junhee. I never saw you here until recently.”

“That’s one step away on the cheesy scale away from asking me if I come here often.” He gave a cheeky quirk of his lips before taking another gulp of the coffee. “I just moved to this area.” He explained. 

The train rattled into the station and they both got onto the empty carriage. 

They made smalltalk, Donghun asking what were good places to eat in the area were. Not that they had long to talk because Donghun had to get off after three stops. 

“Thanks again for the coffee, Junhee.” He smiled before disembarking. 

……

Over the next three weeks, they’d talk every morning. It made Junhee actually look forward to waking up at an insanely early hour every morning. They even started meeting at the McDonalds to get coffee and walk to the station together. It made Junhee’s chest feel warm and heavy whenever he saw Donghun there waiting for him.

He’d told Donghun how he was excited about having the next week off work so he could visit his family before Christmas. He really missed them and always looked forward to seeng them. They were all meeting at his grandparent’s house on the other side of the country. 

“Ah, my mornings just won’t be the same next week, then.” Donghun pouted.

“Ah, it’ll fly by!” Junhee playfully nudged his shoulder. 

Unfortunately, his family had to cancel. Everyone had already been gathered at his grandparents house for a few days. Regrettably they’d all gotten sick and his parents hadn’t wanted him to travel all the way there just to get sick, too. They were already due to visit him in Seoul in January, anyway. 

Junhee was still dejected, though. He hadn’t seen his extended family for so long. But money was tight and he couldn’t afford to get sick and miss work. The fact he was pretty broke also meant he figured he may as well work the following week, since he wouldn’t be going anywhere. 

Sometimes Junhee found himself feeling pretty down, like a dark cloud had come over him. This was one of those times. He felt so alone in this huge city of millions of people. The only people he spoke to besides his customers were his colleague and Donghun. Both of them probably only talked to him because there was literally nobody else for them to talk to. He and his colleague never spoke outside of work and he and Donghun only in the mornings heading to their respective jobs. He didn’t have the guts to ask for his number. Other than that human interaction it was just him. Alone with his thoughts. 

On the Monday, he wondered if Donghun would have recalled him saying he wasn’t around this week. 

The look on the no-longer-stranger’s face when he appeared on the station platform said he had indeed remembered. 

“I thought you said you weren’t here his week.” He blinked. 

“Yeah, my family had to cancel. Figured I might as well work.” He said glumly, before catching himself and remembering to paste on a smile to hide his sadness. Nobody should have to see his sadness.

“Oh, I’m sorry. That sucks.”

“It’s ok.” He forced a carefree smile. 

Donghun frowned a little. “Huh. Well, good for me because I’d miss you.” The frown turned into a warm smile. Junhee’s heart did that weird thing again. 

He wasn’t feeling talkative, though. So they sat in silence, he was thankful that Donghun didn’t try and push conversation. Donghun’s hand did find it’s way to half cover Junhee’s own hand between them on the seats.

Yeah, Junhee’s heart might explode.

……

The next day was a Tuesday. He felt even worse that day because on Tuesdays he didn’t have Donghun’s presence to look forward to. 

He was just looking down at his phone and scrolling through Instagram when he sensed a presence in front of him. He looked up to see Donghun standing there, holding out a white paper box with a blue ribbon tied around it. 

He blinked up at the other man for a few seconds. Maybe Donghun had picked up and extra shift today. 

“You gonna take it or stare at it?” Donghun chuckled, voice a little muffled from the scarf pulled half way up his face. 

Carefully, Junhee took the box. He tugged the ribbon gently until it fell loose. When he opened the lid and peered inside, he saw a single perfectly frosted strawberry cupcake. He stared at it dumbly. 

“I hope you don’t have food allergies. You said you like strawberries so I made one with strawberries.” He heard Donghun say, sounding a little nervous. “You seemed really bummed yesterday about not being able to visit your family so I figured I’d pay you back for trying to cheer me up before.”

Junhee looked up, feeling a tear slip down his face. “Thank you.” He croaked out, trying to keep himself from full-on crying. This was probably the kindest thing anybody had ever done for him. 

Donghun pulled the scarf down from around his face and crouched in front of him where he sat and offered him a tissue to dry his eyes. “I hope you’ll like it.” 

Junhee was pretty sure it was going to be the best thing he’d ever tasted. With fingers trembling and numb from the cold, he rested the box on his lap and carefully tied the ribbon back up to keep the cake safe. “This was really sweet of you. I really needed it… You don’t realise how much I needed it.” He admitted. Honestly, Junhee didn’t realise himself how much he needed it until now.

The train began to pull into the station and they both stood.

“Hey, I was gonna check out that noodle bar you recommended tonight. Do you wanna join me?”

“Oh.” Junhee was a little take aback. “Sure. I finish at like 6.” Junhee stepped onto the train. 

“Meet you there at 7:30, then?” Confusingly, Donghun didn’t follow him onto the train. 

“Sure. Uh, aren’t you getting on?”

“Nope. Bakery’s closed on Tuesdays.” He shrugged nonchalantly. 

“You got up early for me on your day off?!” 

“See you tonight, Junhee.” Donghun leaned forward and stole the lightest of kisses from Junhee’s cheek, right before the train doors closed. 

Junhee’s shocked face was probably a picture as the train pulled away. His heart was doing cartwheels in his chest. 

He looked down at the box in his hand and brought his free hand to his cheek, that pleasant warmth was spreading through his body as he broke out into a wide smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah what do you think? Feedback greatly appreciated as I don’t usually write this kind of thing!


End file.
